Tokyo Rose (alternative spelling Tokio Rose) was a generic name given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to what they believed were multiple English-speaking female broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The broadcasts were aimed at Allied forces in the Pacific, with the intent of lowering morale.[1] "American servicemen in the Pacific often listened to the propaganda broadcasts to get a sense, by reading between the lines, of the effect of their military actions."[2] "She often undermined the anti-American scripts by reading them in a playful, tongue-in-cheek fashion, even going as far as to warn her listeners to expect a “subtle attack” on their morale."[3]

"Farther from the action, stories circulated that Tokyo Rose could be unnervingly accurate, naming units and even individual servicemen";[2] though such stories have never been substantiated by documents such as scripts and recorded broadcasts, they have been reflected in popular books and films such as Flags of Our Fathers.[4] Similar rumors surround the propaganda broadcasts of Lord Haw-Haw and Axis Sally.[5][6]

Iva Toguri is the most famously-linked name behind the Tokyo Rose persona. Toguri was a native to Los Angeles and was stranded in Japan because she was visiting her family when the war broke out.[1] Toguri’s prominence saw her branded as one of the war’s most notorious propagandists, but evidence shows that she was not a Japanese sympathizer. Toguri’s program became conflated with more vicious propaganda,[3] and she was arrested and convicted of treason after the Japanese surrender. She was released from prison in 1956, but it would take more than 20 years before she finally received an official presidential pardon for her role in the war.

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More than a dozen female Japanese broadcasters were dubbed “Tokyo Rose,” but the name is arguably most strongly associated with Iva Toguri, an American citizen born to Japanese immigrants. Toguri broadcast during the 15-20 minute D.J. segment of the 75-minute program The Zero Hour on Radio Tokyo (NHK). The program consisted of propaganda-tinged skits and slanted news reports as well as of popular American music. Using the handle “Orphan Ann,”[1] the smoky-voiced Toguri soon became a legend of the Pacific Theater. By late 1943, thousands of GIs regularly tuned in to “The Zero Hour,” a radio show where she played pop music in between slanted battle reports and put-downs aimed at U.S. troops.”[3]

After World War II ended in 1945, the U.S. military detained Toguri for a year before releasing her for lack of evidence. Department of Justice officials agreed that her broadcasts were "innocuous".[7] But when Toguri tried to return to the US, a popular uproar ensued because Walter Winchell (a powerful broadcasting personality) and the American Legion lobbied relentlessly for a trial, prompting the Federal Bureau of Investigation to renew its investigation of Toguri's wartime activities. Her 1949 trial resulted in a conviction on one of eight counts of treason. In 1974, investigative journalists found that key witnesses claimed they were forced to lie during testimony. U.S. President Gerald Ford pardoned Toguri in 1977.[1]

The name "Tokyo Rose" in the context of these broadcasts first appeared in U.S. newspapers in 1943.[8]

Walter Kaner was born on May 5, 1920, in New York City. He was a journalist and broadcaster who aired as “Tokyo Mose” during and after World War II. Kaner aired on US Army Radio, answering many of Tokyo Rose’s broadcasts. In Japan his “Moshi, Moshi Ano-ne” theme song sung to the tune of “London Bridge is Falling Down.” This song became so popular with Japanese children and GIs, the army paper called it “the Japanese occupation theme song.” Kaner became very influential during a time of war. In 1946 Elsa Maxwell referred to Kaner as “the breath of home to unknown thousands of our young men when they were lonely.”[9]

1945: Tokyo Woes, propaganda cartoon directed by Bob Clampett featuring Seaman Hook. The cartoon's titular character (voiced by an uncredited Sara Berner) is portrayed as an overly enthusiastic, buck-toothed Japanese woman speaking on a propaganda broadcast with a loud voice and an American accent.[10]

1945: Tokyo Rose "Voice of Truth" World War II propaganda movie. Produced by the US department of the Treasury in the support of the 7th war loan.[11]

1946: Tokyo Rose, film; directed by Lew Landers.[12]Lotus Long played a heavily fictionalized "Tokyo Rose", described on the film's posters as a "seductive jap traitress";[13]Byron Barr played the G.I. protagonist, set to kidnap the Japanese announcer. Blake Edwards appeared in a supporting part.

The song "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" from South Pacific the musical composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan, 1949, contains the words, 'We get packages from home, We get movies, we get shows, We get speeches from our skipper And advice from Tokyo Rose.'

1976: "Harbor Lights", a hit song by Boz Scaggs on his album Silk Degrees, begins with the line " Son of a Tokyo Rose, I was bound to wander from home".

1985: Canadian rock band Idle Eyes had a #1 hit in their homeland with the song "Tokyo Rose" from their self-titled debut album. The song's narrator addresses his lover, saying she "tells a story like Tokyo Rose".

1987: American heavy metal band Shok Paris released the song Tokyo Rose on their 1987 album Steel and Starlight. It's about a lonely GI who fell in love with the propaganda broadcaster during the war, and remembers her voice many years later.[14][not in citation given]

^Pfau, Ann Elizabeth; Householder, David (2009). "'Her Voice a Bullet': Imaginary Propaganda and the Legendary Broadcasters of World War II". In Strasser, Susan; Suisman, David. Sound in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. University of Pennsylvania Press.

^Arnot, Charles P. (June 22, 1943). "American Submarines Have Sunk 230 Japanese Ships in Pacific". Brainerd Daily Dispatch. p. 6. We were tuned in on Radio Tokyo when Tokyo Rose, the woman who broadcasts in English, came on the air with "Hello America ... You build 'em, we sink 'em..."